"Great Bikers ride 'til it bleeds......... The best ride harder when it does"

Tom "Roadie" Lovelock

If you would like to look at the previous columns that Tom has wrote you can visit the bike blurb archive.

Well it was a beautiful moment when i discovered that my local jump/ridin' spot had been lovingly re-mastered, it was also a beautiful moment when i realised i had recently purchased the perfect tool for the job... a dirt BMX, lovely.

I scouted around for a jump to restart my passion for jumps after starting on a steel frame XC bike before and falling off and spending lots of cash on the broken bits. The scene was set, one largish tabletop (very safe jump to start on no matter how big), me, my lovely ickle bmx, surely nothing can go wrong. well nothing did the first few times then the confidence starts to grow..

first a little faster

then try to pump the take-off

then both

then i came back with frieds and fell off i dropped from the sky and hit the floor, not with precision and style but with an almight thump as i crashed into the floor with my hip and head.

Usually when i fall off it seems like slo-mo, painful baywatch style. This was a different and altogetther scarier experience as the only thing i remember thinking was, "ohh i'll need a new helmet after hitting the ground that hard.", then i remember turning and saying "that bloody hurt my head that did".

After consulting the crash jury and getting particularly low marks for style of separation from bike and damage caused, the decision was made in my mind that the confidence 'evel kinevel' button was to be turned down slightly.

Then the regulars arrived and frankly took the piss out of my efforts without much trying. practise that is the key i shall become a dirt jedi and my Bmx will be my sabre, the force will guide my over every double, gravity will be at my mercy.

It will be so that every time i hit the take'off gravity will be caught with it pants down and its nob in the butter, and the photos will be sent to gravity's wife, weather and the blackmail sun will shine forevermore. Or i'll fall off trying.